NOMOS Metro Returns in Ice Blue
LE MILE
NOMOS Glashütte’s ice-blue Metro editions return to a design by Berlin-based product designer Mark Braun, whose collaboration with the watchmaker began when a glass carafe he had made attracted the company’s attention. The Metro launched in 2014 with a power reserve indicator placed above and to the right of the hands, opposite a logo shifted towards the left. Braun had wanted to explore asymmetry further, although some of his proposals proved impossible within the movement’s constraints. The date and small seconds remain aligned beneath the hands, while the logo and power reserve indicator sit at unequal distances from the centre of the dial.
/ courtesy of NOMOS Glashütte
On the Metro date power reserve ice blue, the metallic dial brings the surrounding blue markings closer in colour to the surface beneath them. Teal replaces the red in the power reserve display, reducing the contrast that made the original indicator so conspicuous. The automatic Metro neomatik 41 Update distributes its information differently, running the dates around the perimeter and framing the current day between two markers. Its regular arrangement is retained in the new colour. Both versions keep Braun’s domed sapphire crystal, a detail he discussed with Worn & Wound in an interview in March: “The crystal is the lens through which we view the dial.” The hand-wound version also introduces the DUW 4701, a new movement whose quick-set date matters most when the watch has been left unworn and stopped. The calendar can be corrected independently of the hands, sparing anyone who alternates between watches the repeated time adjustments needed to bring the date forward. NOMOS is fitting the movement to the existing white-dial version as well, allowing the original face with its red accents to remain an option alongside this new blue finish. The automatic retains its established movement; its update concerns the dial.
/ courtesy of NOMOS Glashütte
/ courtesy of NOMOS Glashütte
/ courtesy of NOMOS Glashütte
Made in Glashütte, Germany, the 37 mm Metro date power reserve ice blue uses the hand-wound DUW 4701 caliber with a quick-set date and up to 52 hours of power reserve. The 40.5 mm Metro neomatik 41 Update ice blue features an automatic movement with a ring date and up to 48 hours of power reserve.
— all images courtesy of NOMOS Glashütte
